i finally bought yann martel 's life of pi yesterday, hurray! i ve used my 20-dollar borders gift vouncher, so it only costed me 56 cents haha!

i ve only begin reading last nite & now at chapter 16 of 95. dont be mistaken i m a fast reader, the chapters are pretty short in the book, sometimes merely a page or 2. but it s indeed a reader friendly book with depth, else ppl like me (whose ang moh standard not very high) ll be struggling with it instead of enjoying.

there s quite some nice stuffs inside. here s a quote from chapter 1, which left a deeper impression on me amongst others:

I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he 's not careful.
:: daydreamer 11/24/2002 12:32:00 PM [+] ::
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i loved taiwanese illustrator Jimmy ( �{�� ) 's illustrated stories very much, esp the earlier ones. 1 of them is �� ��E�� (literally means walking towards left, walking towards right), which has an english version recently released under the title a chance of sunshine. this s most probably because it s going to be made into a movie by hk director du qi feng, starring jin cheng wu & gigi leung, with warner bros investment.

the original story is abt a guy & a girl who lived just next door each other, yet never realise the other party 's presence all the while because one has the habit to turn left, while the other likes to turn right, missing every chance to cross paths. they chanced upon each other finally & a short-lived romance blossomed & withered the same day. the ending is kinda ambiguous but my interpretation during my last read is a positive ending eventually.

i just abt the story of the movie on the papers today. as expected, there are bound to be changes to adapt the illustrated story to the big screen. jin cheng wu 's character now becomes a tutor in tainan who gets picked by movie star agents, while gigi is a HK movie star in trouble who ends up next door to him. let s hope it s a good adaptation which would not turn the original story upside down.

**i m usually jealous of handsome & talented guys, but i like Wang Li Hong 's W.H.Y. very much! very catchy, haha!
:: daydreamer 11/24/2002 12:12:00 PM [+] ::
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i find it hard to understand how some ppl would go around talking abt the good deeds they ve done to ppl, irregardless whether they really did them. or ppl babbling away abt self-righteous principles, claimng that the listening party should ve know too well the person he/she is, needless to be told. worst of all, i always ve problem pretending to play along these kinda ppl with the 'god mentality', i.e. actaully believing that they r playing god by doing good to other ppl. i can just tell from their faces how much they enjoy talking abt all those good they ve done, almost as if they ve just saved the world.

so far, i think i m only more at ease with politicians or lobbyists running campaigns doing this such things professionally.
:: daydreamer 11/22/2002 12:35:00 AM [+] ::
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i just watched harry potter after work. like the 1st movie, it didnt go down very well with me coz i already know the main plot. the element of surprise arent there no more. however the general pacing is greatly improved this time round because the director has decided wisely to adapt selectively in the plot lines, instead of being blindly loyal to the book like he did for the 1st.

i dont know why but when i read the 2nd book, i truly enjoyed it till the end. for the movie, i somehow find the climax 'too easy' for harry potter to solve all his problems. anyway, maybe i m just picky. overall it s still a well-made & entertaining film.

1 last thing, i m lucky that blaue reiter knew abt the extra bit after the 10-minute long credits. i bet nobody would ve stayed for that if they not know it beforehand. so those who havent watch the movie yet, do remember to remain in your seat until the very end of the credits.
:: daydreamer 11/20/2002 01:32:00 AM [+] ::
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another 2-month freelance on site job starting on monday. not sure if i would ve time or if so, any inspiration to write for this blog during then. no internet connection there too, so i would miss my frequent chats with saigonapple & T-Rex.

besides the osim chair, actaully my house also got another new 'thing'. my sis has bought herself a maltese, named creamy because her fur s white. although i can pretend to be one, but i m not exactly a great animal lover. the 1st few nites were especially disastrous when the puppy made ghostly weeping sound of fear at our bedroom doors. also, we ve to take extra caution going to toilet in the middle of the nite, as if walking on a mine field. coz the puppy toilet training is not proper yet.

hopefully creamy ll learn to behave better soon. then i can feel at ease in my home again.
:: daydreamer 11/17/2002 12:21:00 AM [+] ::
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i m not a fan of the HK TV serial kindred spirit but there is this episode i watched that has 1 character says the line (to a mother-in-law): "having a good daughter-in-law is like having another real daughter".

my mum must be truly such a fortunate mother-in-law ... no ... not because of me, but my bro. my sis-in-law has got my mum an osim massage chair for her birthday. both me & my sis try to chip in a lil too. nonetheless sis-in-law s still the big shareholder & what s most importantly, the one who thought of it in the 1st place. ah ... what can i say. good man like my bro deserves good woman.

i ve just finished testing out the different kinda massage programmes. now i m feeling so re-vigorised. all thankz to my wonderful sis-in-law.
:: daydreamer 11/15/2002 01:15:00 AM [+] ::
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Part 2 & final of my Hong Kong photos. all in all i selected 60 of my APS snaps. for those visiting the 2nd time, the new ones are in the last 3 rows. & also i ve changed my banner ads type in tripod to pop up so mac users can see the photos without the ad on top. unfortunately, the irritating pop ups are bck again. somehow, my method to 'cover up'the ads only works for pc.
:: daydreamer 11/12/2002 12:01:00 AM [+] ::
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Acme Filmworks aleksandra korejwo animates by manupilating colored salt with a condor feather. check out the beautiful work she created with her unique technique.
:: daydreamer 11/11/2002 06:46:00 PM [+] ::
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Part 1 of my Hong Kong photos are up. still more to come. this s a very satisfying photographic trip. the sunlight in HK is very strong & many of the daytime pics are really rich in color & contrast. there are quite a few photos i like very much myself. furthermore, this time round i actually ve some pics of myself to show. unlike the usual situation where i would take lotsa photos of the place i go, yet rarely ve any with myself in it.

i m most glad i didnt f*** up my nite shoot at Victoria Peak. using that crappy mini-tripod i brought along, i m lucky to get some pretty ok photos there. initially i was really worried when i see how shaky my sis 's ones turned out. i ll upload those the next round.
:: daydreamer 11/10/2002 01:29:00 AM [+] ::
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i m bck late yesterday nite from HK. i m pretty proud of my discipline to ensure that it didnt turn out a fanatic shopping trip, by channeling much of that impulse to snapping away 100 over APS shots & 36 on my supersampler. on top of that, my sis also sets her personal record wasting away 3x36 film roll.

besides the merry-making & marvellous food, now that i m back, there are a few things the place has left a rather deep inpression on me. off my mind, first thing must be there are so so many people. they are all over the streets, day or nite, weekends or not. it is indeed an exciting place buzzling with life, although i can imagine how many times harder it s to live there. besides the competition for job opportunities, the high cost of housing must be daunting. it s not hard to understand why the HK guide told us how much they envy our HDB housing plan on the bus journey to the hotel.

another thing is i can really feel how powerful those rich HK tycoons are over there. famous names i ve always heard about like 'king of gambling' ho hong 'something'or media tycoon yang shou cheng are on buildings which have become prominent landmarks. it must be a free place with ample possiblities, such as HK, that makes a much better environment, for the making of such controversial & powerful figures.

i also find it interesting that how the really aged & weathered buildings blend with the colorful neon-lit shopping arcades or commercial buildings. chaotic it may appear, i feel a rather strange chemistry for them to co-exist in such harmony, without the need to refurnish (more likely they simply cant afford to) the old buildings at all. i believe most of the places i went are tourist hotspots (thus not representative), yet even that dont call for a glossy colourful coat of new paint (look at chinatown).

there are little things i noticed too. there is a dying need for more public toilets in kowloon area. i m not sure why, probably because space is expensive in HK. either the shops ve got no toilets at all, or they are locked up only for the use of tenants. only eating places like restaurants ve got public toilets. it may seem such a trivality but it wont be hard for one to understand our desperate needs in the all-day cool weather on the streets of endless 'toiletless' shops. luckily the situation is much better in HK island.

it is also said that the fake watches in bazaars are really 'good stuffs'. HK relies mainly on light industry and watch components manufacturing is 1 triving trade there. thus, famous watchmakers like those from swiss actaully have the components produced in HK to cut production cost & assemble them back home. however i still ve my doubts abt the 'high quality' of those fake watches, even if they used the same components as those branded ones.

1 more observation i ve is that the food in HK, unlike the hawker food in sg, do not use artificial favouring at all. no wonder it tastes yummy, not to mention the home-cooked feel. that s probably how the food vendors cater to hong kong families' habit to eat out often. they ve very small kitchens in their flats generally, so a loving HK husband wont bear to let his wife cook in that clamped space everyday.

i love the weather in HK now in deep autumn. but the stronger UV in the sunlight there gives me headaches. i m not at all prepared for that.

such are my personal impressions of HK in short 5 days, which cant possibly be conclusive in any way. i left out the obvious & well-known stuffs like the signboards (i snapped so much of them) or the tourist favourites i ve went. the only place i like to go but did not is lan kwan fang. well, every happy journey has a small lil regret. it s ok. the good thing is there s always a chance for a 2nd trip in this case.
:: daydreamer 11/06/2002 02:22:00 PM [+] ::
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